Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My birthday's tomorrow (hold your applause please) :D

My mom and I are going to bake something sweet for me. This is a chance for me to try something I wouldn't normally make, something time consuming, decadent, and totally delicious.

I need advice! I have some (many) ideas, but am also open to your suggestions. I have access to many American and Turkish ingredients, and I have a major soft spot for nuts, nut butter, pumpkin, oats, chocolate, coconut, ginger, spices.

My ideas:
spicy choco pumpkin cake
http://www.consciouskitchen.net/2009/11 ... -cake.html
apple gingerbread upside-down cake
http://www.veganappetite.com/2009/11/apple-gingerbread-upside-down-cake.html
fig, wine, honey cake
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/feb/13/fig-wine-honey-cake-baking
pb choco ganache pie
http://anotheronebitesthecrustblog.com/2009/11/15/the-perfect-duo/
pb coffee cake
http://veglicious.blogspot.com/2007/05/peanut-butter-coffee-cake_28.html
lemon, rosemary, olive oil cake
http://www.thegluttonousvegan.com/2009/11/lemon-rosemary-and-olive-oil-cake.html
pb choco chip bars
http://hellyeahitsvegan.com/?p=1789
coconut pb bars
http://veganjoy.blogspot.com/2010/05/coconut-peanut-butter-bars.html
sweet potato blondies
http://www.6bittersweets.com/2009/11/month-of-vegan-cookies-sweet-potato.html
maple pecan pie
http://www.windattack.com/?p=96
pumpkin chocolate cheesecake (but I would need a good sub for the cream cheese)
http://veganmenu.blogspot.com/2006/11/w ... t-for.html
deots pumpkin cinnamon rolls
http://donteatoffthesidewalk.com/?p=129

I've never made any of these recipes, so your advice is greatly appreciated. I'm also open to other suggestions!

Thanks in advance to all you wonderful ppkers <3

The fig, wine and honey (err, agave) cake is what piqued my interest, but I wouldn't consider it decadent enough for a birthday. Actually, none of those recipes look totally decadent. For decadent, I'd do something crazy like a torte or a danish braid.

If you make something with frosting make ermine frosting if you've never had it before. It is delicious. It is light and fluffy and doesn't have that sharp, sickly sweetness powdered sugar does. It is so rich and different. Also if tweaked it seems like it could make an awesome whipped cream substitute.
There is one place in my city that serves a vegan carrot cake and people go crazy over the frosting. I am really excited that I have figured out what it is because the person that makes the cake swore he would never tell. It is a really nice creamy balance for a spicy cake or cookie. I could talk forever about the beauty of this frosting but I'll stop now and proceed to the recipe.

Ermine Frosting
1 cup soy milk or favorite milk substitute
3 tbsp. flour
1 cup earth balance or shortening
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

Put cold milk in a sauce pan and whisk in flour. Heat until the mixture is thick, thicker than gravy.
Place in a bowl and let it cool with plastic wrap on the surface so it doesn't form a skin

Cream the sugar and earth balance until light and fluffy- stand mixer helps here. The sugar should be mostly dissolved.
Add vanilla then add the cold paste, a few tablespoons at a time, to the butter mixture and whip until light and fluffy.

I just made the carrot ginger coconut macadamia nut cake from vwav for my birthday, and iced it with a double batch of the coconut heaven cupcake frosting - amazing! Very rich and moist and what I think of as decadent.

That ermine frosting sounds yummy.

I'm still debating. I want something guaranteed to be delicious, but I also want to make a new recipe.

I think I might either make the pumpkin cinnamon rolls or something peanut buttery. I also have a jar of sunbutter!

Any and all recommendations appreciated! This is my chance to live it up, try something new, stuff my face.

that spicy chocolate pumpkin cake looks really good! i would probably want that! i mean, i DO want that and I want you to have it, too!

If those desserts listed are considered outrageously extravagant, I'm in trouble! Olive oil cakes and bars and brownies are practically weekly affairs in my household!

If you really want decadent, why not get ambitious and go a production where sheer amount of time consumed in the process obliterates any possible guilt or concern over calories consumed? You know, the type of dessert requiring you to make homemade sweetened condensed soymilk in order to make dulce de leche or candy nuts to make praline paste to then incorporate into a layer of mousse, or where you're stacking layers of mousse on top of cheesecake on top of sponge cake and dousing it all in ganache? I'm thinking opera cakes, mont blancs, french yule logs, multi-layer cheesecakes topped with meringue, plaisir sucres, that sort of thing.

Here are some things to consider before committing to cinnamon rolls, which, all judgment aside here, really should be justifiable more often than once a year for a birthday:
-Vegan Daring Bakers' Bloggers' creations, like: http://madcapcupcake.wordpress.com/2008 ... ake-vegan/
-a ppk poster's insane birthday cake: http://bjorkedoff.blogspot.com/2009/12/ ... utter.html
-Brownie cheesecake torte on this page is decadent in its original version, with a brownie base, layer of chocolate cheesecake, brownie again, plain cheesecake and topped with chocolate buttercream, but I couldn't leave well enough alone and made this for a birthday with brownies brushed with espresso syrup, caramel cheesecake, those brushed brownies again, mocha cheesecake, chocolate buttercream drizzled with caramel when served. It's endlessly adaptable! Peanut butter cheesecake, pumpkin cheesecake, butterscotch blondies instead of brownies...
http://veganmenu.blogspot.com/2007/12/p ... scake.html

Things I have learned:

1. As several of you have noted, I have no idea what the word decadent means. (Thanks for the links gwen, they really drove that lesson home!)

2. I don't really like pumpkin pie.

I ended up making a double layer pumpkin pie (basic pumpkin + a chocolate layer) with a gingersnap crust. It was meh. I only ate one small slice. Birthday decadence fail.

I'm going to try again! I'm inspired anew!

I'd say next time, go for the raspberry blackout cake from VWAV, so delicious! And I'd say it's decadent.